Do you know where this is?

This odd-looking contraption will be anything but mysterious to railroad buffs. The roundhouse was an ingenious way to turn a train around, particularly a steam locomotive, which was designed to operate most efficiently moving forward, not in reverse.

A steam engine headed into Worcester, where this roundhouse was located, would have to head up to the roundhouse, where it would then be turned and driven off into one of the storage tracks around the circle without ever having to go in reverse.

The roundhouse, then, is a relic of the steam locomotive era.

Steam locomotives dominated railway travel from their beginnings in the early 19th century until diesel and electric railways took over in the mid-20th century; in 1951, diesel had taken over, and this Worcester site was for sale.

For many, the romance of train travel owes much to the steam engine's sounds and smells. The steam that drove the engine came from burning coal, wood or oil. The engine needs to carry both fuel and water.

This roundhouse in Worcester was certainly a draw for every kid fascinated with steam engines and trains, and was likely erected around the time that the locomotive first came to Worcester in the 1830s, with the Boston and Worcester Railroad.

The railroad carried both freight and passengers, and eventually joined with a series of other railroads to carry both straight through to Albany, N.Y., becoming the Boston and Albany Railroad in the 1870s.